In one prior art apparatus of the kind specified the cast strip between two casting wheels is subjected to tensile stress strength by driving rollers disposed immediately downstream of a casting wheel that the strip is drawn tightly against the cooled cylindrical surface of the casing wheel. The intention is to accelerate cooling. However, the tensile stress can be applied only when the strip has acquired adequate tensile strength due to the cooling. To this end a gaseous cooling medium is also played onto the strip on the free side in the zone of the casting wheels. Until the strip is guided in contact with the driving rollers, and guided between the cooling wheel and the coiling reel floatably between the jets of blowing nozzles disposed on both sides of the strip. Blowing nozzles are also disposed in the zone of the coiling reel and blow a cooling gaseous medium on to the free side of the strip (European Pat. No. 0 081 175 B1).
Since in that apparatus particularly intensive contact cooling takes place only in the zone of the casting wheel, high casting speeds cannot be achieved, more particularly since even the zone of the casting wheel solidification must have progressed far enough for the strip to be capable of absorbing the tensile stress applied by the driving rollers. Another disadvantage of the prior art apparatus is that no provisions are made for lateral guiding of the strip during coiling. Merely playing on the strip radially with the gaseous medium in the direction of the generated surface of the coiling reel does not achieve aligned coiling. Nor are any provisions made for continuous coiling--i.e., a changeover from a full coiling reel to an empty reel with uninterrupted strip conveying.